Effects Of Persepolis

Persepolis was a very insightful movie about the lives of Iranian people at a very important time in the country’s history. Two topics that stuck out to me the most were the effects of the war on the everyday lives of the citizens of Iran and secondly the not-so-patriarchal lifestyle of people at the household level.
Once the revolution to bring down the Shah began, which was followed by the Iran-Iraq war, the lives of Iranians were never the same again. Before these events, Iran appeared to be what we can easily call ‘a modern society’. Women were treated equally, men and women openly socialized together without any restrictions and westernization was apparent with the dressing styles of women, parties and the children indulging in pop culture. All of this drastically changed after the elections and once the war began. Under the new repressive government, religious extremists in power imposed several laws that undermined the freedom of all citizens of Iran.
In addition to all these social impacts there were economic downturns as well. The stores are shown to have empty shelves, the country’s infrastructure destroyed, healthcare deteriorated, the excessive restrictions on almost everything pushed for the need for black-markets and illegal operations.
Even with all the restrictions from the people in power and the policing of everybody, there were still a large number of people who were very modern, even men. One example would be Marjane’s father telling her and Reza to be more careful about meeting in public. Another example would be when Marjane’s uncle Anoush is released from prison and visits them, everybody ate dinner at the same table, both men and